Mary Roberts Rinehart (August 12, 1876-September 22, 1958) was an American writer, often called the American Agatha Christie, although her first mystery novel was published 14 years before Christie's. She is considered the source of the phrase "The butler did it", although she did not actually use the phrase. She is considered to have invented the "Had-I-But-Known" school of mystery writing. She also created a costumed supercriminal called "the Bat", who was cited by Bob Kane as one of the inspirations for his "Batman." (Wiki)

Synopsis:
When a man vanishes, his beautiful daughter turns to an attorney to find him. Then her aunt disappears, too—from a locked house in the middle of the night. The trail of missing persons leads to the White Cat, a lair of crooked politicians and even worse ne'er-do-wells. And what they find in that place is—murder…